Audi Hamilton Island Race Week - Monumental tussle

by Lisa Ratcliff on 23 Aug 2010 Audi Hamilton Island Race Week day 3.

In the IRC Passage 2 division at Audi Hamilton Island Race Week a monumental tussle is emerging between the top two boats, the two swapping first and second race by race.

It might have been Harvey Milne’s Sydney based Archambault 31 Aroona’s day today but the Matthew Owen skippered ACT entry Local Hero is still narrowly leading the series pointscore with no room for error over the remaining four days of competition due to a meagre one point split.

'We lost out in the final few miles of the first two races and today we got them,' said Aroona’s navigator Brett Filby, a well known Lake Macquarie sailor who is here with many of the crew from the Mumm 30 Tow Truck to help owner Milne achieve his quest to be named Audi IRC Australian Champion. Should that happen the giant-killer will be the fourth Archambault to win the Championship in four years.

Owen, the CEO of Canberra Yacht Club, has nothing but praise for Aroona’s performance 'it’s hard to be nasty when they are such talented sailors, and good guys.'

There is a slight pang of guilt that Local Hero could stand in the way of Aroona’s Audi IRC Australian Championship Win, and cost them an Audi. Currently fourth, Owen says 'we are aiming for a hubcap, they are going for the whole car'. But after missing out on the top divisional prize on a countback at Race Week last year Owen has his own motive for remaining pitiless.

Four of Local Hero’s crew are Canberra dinghy and trailerable boat sailors, two are from Queensland and the boat’s owner Peter Mosely is Sydney based. Providing valuable local knowledge on the BH36 is local charter boat operator David Steilow, Owen admitting 'tides are not a big issue on Lake Burley Griffin so it’s great to have an expert in that area'.

Of the regatta Owen says 'I know what goes on behind the scenes and this is one of the best run regattas in the country. The great organisation is one of the reasons we keep coming back.'

With the temperature reaching a very pleasant 23 degrees on Hamilton Island, Owen is not sorry about missing today’s maximum 11 degrees in Canberra, minus two at first light.

The last time the ‘truckers’ were at Race Week was in 2002, Filby admitting 'we are still trying to remember through the haze of the last eight years where to go. The memory isn’t quite what it used to be.'

This is good news for Local Hero, Owen also hopeful that the Aroona crew 'might over-indulge during tomorrow’s layday and be destroyed for Wednesday when we go toe to toe'.

Including today’s race, Stephen Ainsworth’s RP63 Loki is now 0.77 of one point in front of Aroona on the Championship leaderboard which will be settled this Saturday when the final Audi Hamilton Island Race Week race is sailed in the stunning Whitsunday Group of islands. Today is the first time the yellow leader’s jersey has changed hands in the four-part series with Audi Hamilton Island Race Week the deciding event.

Boats featuring near the top of the Championship ladder are vying for an Audi A5 Cabriolet.

In the IRC Passage 1 series results, Ray ‘Hollywood’ Roberts, skippering a chartered Farr 42 called Evolution Racing while he awaits delivery of his new boat, the former STP65 Rosebud owner by Roger Sturgeon, collected his second win on the trot today putting him comfortably at the top of the class.

Peter Horn’s King 40 Canute and Andrew Parkes’ X41 Matrix are second and third after three races, both on 13 points.

Tomorrow all divisions will leave sail bags unopened as they take advantage of the full calendar of activities planned around Hamilton Island.

IRC Passage Div 2

PROVISIONAL RESULTS

Series Results [IRC Div2] up to Race 3 (Drops = 0)

Place	Ties	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	From	Sers Score	Race 3	Race 2	Race 1
1		1236	LOCAL HERO	Matthew Owen	CYC	4.0	2.0	1.0	1.0
2		6807	AROONA	Harvey Milne	RMYC	5.0	1.0	2.0	2.0
3		6935	L'ALTRA DONNA	Andy Kearnan	CYCA	11.0	4.0	4.0	3.0
4		6777	ONYA	Andrew Hurt	MHYC	12.0	5.0	3.0	4.0
5		6609	AMANTE	Dennis Cooper	CYCA	19.0	8.0	6.0	5.0
6		16129	NEAT ENG. WAILEA	Neil Padden	MHYC	20.0	7.0	7.0	6.0
7		771N	DOUBLE O SEVEN	Chris Carlile	WSC	24.0	9.0	8.0	7.0
8		S191	GRIZZLY	Chris Jones	RMYS	26.0	3.0	10.0	13.0
9	5.0S	SM377	BACARDI	Martin Power	SYC	28.0	12.0	5.0	11.0
10		6499	SUPERNOVA	David Bates	MYC	28.0	11.0	9.0	8.0
11		142	CROSSBOW	David Cutcliffe	BSC	30.0	6.0	14.0F	10.0
12		R134	WYUNA	Dennis Vincent	RPYC	33.0	13.0	11.0	9.0
13		RQ888	JESSANDRA	Roland Dane	RQYS	34.0	10.0	12.0	12.0

IRC Passage Div 1

PROVISIONAL RESULTS

Series Results [IRC Div1] up to Race 3 (Drops = 0)

Place	Ties	Sail No	Boat Name	Skipper	Sers Score	Race 3	Race 2	Race 1
1		4200	EVOLUTION RACING	Ray Roberts	4.0	1.0	1.0	2.0
2	1.0S	MH85	CANUTE	Peter Horn	13.0	7.0	5.0	1.0
3		41	MATRIX	Andrew Parkes	13.0	2.0	6.0	5.0
4	3.0S	ESP7100	CHARISMA	Alejandro Perez Calz	14.0	8.0	3.0	3.0
5		YC400	TWO TRUE	Andrew Saies	14.0	3.0	4.0	7.0
6		7744	EAGLE ROCK	Ross Wilson	20.0	4.0	8.0	8.0
7		6808	FLYING CLOUD	Howard Piggott	23.0	10.0	7.0	6.0
8		3838	ZEN	Gordon Ketelbey	24.0	5.0	10.0	9.0
9		RQ64	OCEAN AFFINITY	Stewart Lewis	25.0	19.0	2.0	4.0
10	9.0S	6669	CARBON CREDITS	Trevor Bailey	34.0	9.0	15.0	10.0
11		SYD8	TULIP	Bernie Vanthof	34.0	12.0	11.0	11.0
12		RQ447	ULTIMATE POSITIONING	Tam Faragher	35.0	6.0	17.0	12.0
13		447	QUATRE QUART	Robert Segaert	40.0	11.0	12.0	17.0
14	9.0S	SYD5	MARGARET RINTOUL V	Graham Mobuckson	41.0	18.0	9.0	14.0
15		SYD111	BULLRUSH	Bob Southerton	41.0	13.0	13.0	15.0
16		8181	ESPRESSO FORTE	Laurence Freedman	47.0	20.0	14.0	13.0
17		6755	AUDI CENTRAL COAST	Ian Creak	50.0	15.0	19.0	16.0
18		A50	BENNIE AND THE JETS	John Griffin	52.0	14.0	20.0	18.0
19		6834	PM CHANCELLOR	Josh McKean	55.0	17.0	18.0	20.0
20		H6110	SAMSKARA	David Stoopman	56.0	16.0	21.0	19.0
21		B2700	BELLE	David Currie	58.0	21.0	16.0	21.0

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